The Way You Are: Missing
by corneroffandom
Summary: When Zack's issues start to become too much, Dolph helps.


Zack Ryder finds himself listening to his father lecturing him, again, on what he thinks he's missing that keeps him from progressing in the WWE. He stares at the wall and idly tweets about it, needing something to keep his mind and fingers busy. He bites his lip as this leads into his father only complaining even more about his lack of ambition, his clothes, his hair, his everything.

He knows that his father means well, especially considering how excited he'd been when Zack had actually won the US title a couple years ago, but still... it hurts, eats away at his already shaky self-confidence. He nods a couple of times, trying to make the deluge of words come to an end, before he makes it to his feet, his father's rambles cutting off abruptly. "I gotta go," he says simply, grabbing his coat and heading for the door. "Forgot, I have to check on Dolph's vacation house and... yeah. Bye, Dad." If there's a response, he doesn't hear it, staring at the snow encrusted ground with suspiciously wet eyes before he stomps through the icy mess to his car.

Dolph's house in New Jersey is gorgeous, Zack has to admit. It's surrounded by woods and the broski can only imagine how it'll be in the summer, with birds and animals chittering all around, the many trees now fleshed out by bright, green leaves. He smiles waveringly and unlocks the front door with a sigh, relieved that Dolph hadn't told many people about this place, so he has somewhere to go when he wants to be away from the world for awhile, just to think. He wanders through the quiet, empty rooms, his need to be alone warring with the ache that he always feels when he's away from Ziggler for too long, which is pretty much anytime they're not traveling together for WWE, or here in this vacation home together.

He sighs and pauses in the hallway between his room and the bedroom, staring in at the bed with a faint smirk before he turns back to his door and pushing it open, staring at the various memorabilia already covering the few tables he'd set up for such a purpose. His eyes narrow as he glares into the room, shaking his head viciously as his father's words ricochet through his mind once more, leaving a path of destruction there like not much else had in the past. He drags his feet as he walks into the room, surrounding himself in his favorite shows' action figures and toys, his breath heavy and shaky as he glances around at it all, thinking about all of the time he wastes on Ebay collecting everything. _Maybe Dad was right,_ he finds himself thinking, even more of his self-worth and confidence crumbling the longer he looks around at everything.

Disgust growls up his throat as he storms into the room and begins demolishing everything, sweeping some stuff off of the tables, throwing even more to the floor, against the walls, whatever he feels would ease the debilitating thoughts repeating nonstop in his mind. He finally tires himself out and slumps to the floor, shoulders shaking as pieces of various things he's collected over the years gouges his palm, blood sluggishly dripping from his palm as he realizes just what he'd done, crying even harder at the waste of some of the one-of-a-kind things he'd been keeping here. "Oh God," he groans, pressing his face into the crook of his arm. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

It's dark in the room, and he's still laying there, not caring how much time has passed, or if anyone's looking for him. He thinks his phone's buzzed a few times but he hasn't had the energy or interest in looking at it, leaving it in his pocket lest it should meet the same fate as 75% of the things in this room had already. He does register the soft sound of a door clicking open and faint footsteps heading through the house, a frown forming on his face as he listens, not expecting any company. He wonders if perhaps Dolph had hired a cleaning lady, a thrill of horror shivering down his spine as he realizes what she'll think, or do, when she sees _this_ room, but it's clear that it's not a cleaning lady when he hears soft humming of a Britney Spears song, his eyes widening.

"Zack? I know you're in here," he calls out as soon as he's turned a couple of lights on. "Come on, kid. Where are you hiding at?" Despite Dolph walking all around to find him, Zack is still motionless, unable to do much but listen to his voice as he begins to cry all over again. It's not long after this that he finds him, flicking the flight on in his room and immediately freezing. "Zack," he says, his voice painfully soft and quiet as he walks into the room, trying to avoid stepping on things as he kneels down in front of him and rests a hand on his shoulder. "Zack, what happened? Did someone... did someone break in?"

Zack sobs harder at the angered worry in his voice, shaking his head desperately as he buries his face in Dolph's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry- if I messed up the walls or floor, or- or anything, I'll pay you back. Hell, you can have this room back. I probably won't need it-"

Dolph pulls away and stares down at him, perplexed. "Wait, wait. You did all of this, kid? Why?" he asks, surveying the damage. Walls and floor seem ok, but the vast majority of his things are shattered against the floor, adding to his frown. "What happened, kid?"

It takes a long time, through his sobs and struggles to breathe, but finally Zack tells him- what his father had said, the things he'd thought about, what a mistake coming here had been, everything that he'd done since. He hangs his head afterwards, expecting Dolph to see him in a new light, disgusted with his temper and childish attitude, and leave him on this floor, or even kick him out himself, but no... instead, Ziggler scoots forward and wraps his arms around him, running his fingers through his short hair with a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry," he mutters again, clinging to the other man's hoodie.

"Stop apologizing," Dolph whispers to him. "I actually just came from your dad's place... he seemed pretty worried, and told me you were last planning on coming here. I was going to surprise you, my stand-up set this week was cut in half because they signed more names to the card... so I was available to come spend a couple of days up here. I guess it's a good thing now."

Zack sniffs and wipes at his eyes, blinking at him with no lack of surprise. "I'm glad you're here," he mutters, resting his face on Dolph's shoulder. "But I'm sorry your set was shortened."

"It's fine," he shrugs, careful not to dislodge Ryder from where he's resting. "I'd rather be here with you anyway." He casts a careful eye around the room, examining the various pieces of toys and action figures scattered against his floor. "Come on, let's get your hand fixed up, and then we'll go through all of this stuff and figure out what can be salvaged..."

Zack hesitates however, his fingers held loosely as his boyfriend tries to lead him to the bathroom, where one of the First Aid kit is kept. "You don't need to- I screwed up, I should be the-"

"Hey, we're a team," he tells him, stopping them right in the middle of the hallway and turning to look at him, cupping his face to ensure he'll look back up at him. "I want to help you through all of this- with your dad, your career, cleaning your room up, fixing your stuff. Anything and everything, alright, kid?" His free hand finds Zack's and pulls it up so he can look at it, blood still sluggishly dripping down his fingers. "But first, we're going to fix you up." He leans in and kisses his palm, causing the other man to shiver. "Because you're the most important thing out of all of it, and the one thing that matters the most to me."

Zack flushes, fresh tears filling his eyes and Dolph's hand shifts, brushing them away too with a worried grimace on his face. "Happy ones, bro," he mutters, sounding a little embarrassed as Dolph's eyes soften. "You mean everything to me too."

Dolph smiles off of a sigh and leans in until they're standing nose to nose, eyes locked. "Don't hold what your father said against him. He's just trying to help you; we all see how much this is hurting you, and we all want to do something, figure out some way to make this all work. He didn't mean to hurt your feelings, or make things even worse for you, and I think he realized it was the wrong path to take sometime after you left." Zack nods blankly, sniffing slightly as Dolph kisses his now-dry cheek, shifting to press a longer, deeper kiss to his mouth.

Pulling away, he gently claims his hand and continues the short walk back to the bathroom, talking about what they could do tonight, after sorting through as much of Zack's room as possible and taking care of everything else. Zack listens with a small, wavery smile, overwhelmed with love for the other man and relief that he had chosen _now_ for a surprise visit, not sure if he would've made it out of that room any time soon if Dolph hadn't.


End file.
